How CPythons Errors keep getting better

The upcoming Python 3.15 keeps improving error messages, which will be the fourth out of the last five releases to establish this most recent tradition. Good errors help developers debug faster and keep beginners from giving up in frustration

In this talk we go all the way back to 2008 and explore how error messages evolved from Python 3.0 to today. Along the way we will also go into what makes up a good error message and why they are often so hard to get right. We'll also touch on how academia and research let us down and why good errors remain an art more than an exact science. I will also talk about my personal experience and the bad unfortunate error message I encountered during my first teaching job that fueled my passion for compiler and language development.

Finally, I will also argue why you not only don't have to be a compiler engineer to contribute to python errors but why not being one might be an actual advantage.

By the end, you will have learned what makes a good error message, how to spot a bad one and how to fix them.